Water—and the sanitation it provides—is an essential ingredient for healthy human life. It is crucial to remember this as world leaders finalize the Sustainable Development Goals, a United Nations-led global framework that will guide development priorities for the next 15 years.

Thailand has until the end of March 2015 to take measures to shut down domestic trade in illegal elephant ivory or it will face trade sanctions under the Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES), which met in Geneva last July.

Evanston, Illinois, is our new 2015 US Earth Hour Capital. An international jury selected the city from among 44 participating US cities. WWF’s Earth Hour City Challenge highlights and supports local action towards climate change including transitioning to 100 percent renewable energy and preparing for the impacts of extreme weather.

The Presidential Task Force on Combatting Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing and Seafood Fraud announced its action plan in its efforts to stop the import and sale of IUU seafood products in the United States on March 15, 2015, at the largest seafood show in North America.

The world’s most endangered marine mammal just received a little more hope for survival. The government of Mexico recently committed to a two year buy out of gillnet fisheries in the upper Gulf of California. Vaquita populations have declined dramatically in the past few years primarily because they get caught in gillnets and drown.

To support cities on issues of climate change and sustainability, WWF launched the Earth Hour City Challenge in 2012. The global initiative recognizes the cities taking holistic and credible actions to build a sustainable future for their residents.

We are celebrating major milestones for both leopards and tigers in 2015. Efforts to protect and establish populations of these big cats are yielding results in Russia, China and India. Looking ahead, there is much more work to be done to protect these species.

Camera traps in China have captured images and video footage of giant pandas that are often difficult to see in the wild. The photographs and video are some of the most amazing images ever of pandas and other species in their remote habitat, which were caught on film as part of long-term wildlife monitoring projects set up in panda nature reserves by the Chinese government and WWF.

It’s good news for the furry black and white bear that has come to symbolize wildlife conservation. China announced the results of its Fourth National Giant Panda Survey, which WWF supported with financial and technical expertise.

Rajkumar Praja, one of Nepal’s most wanted wildlife criminals, was arrested by an INTERPOL team in Malaysia and extradited to Nepal where he faces a lengthy spell in jail for rhino poaching and trafficking in rhino horns.

In an amazing tale of recovery, Amur leopard populations have more than doubled in just seven years. New census data reveals Amur leopards in Russia’s Land of the Leopard National Park now number at least 57 cats (up from just 30 cats in 2007). And an additional 8-12 leopards were counted in adjacent areas of China.

Hundreds of millions of people will switch off the lights for one designated hour – March 28th, 2015, at 8:30 pm local time—as individuals, businesses and world leaders join together in an iconic and unprecedented call for action on climate change.

Footage of a tiger and her playful cubs caught by a WWF camera trap is the first video evidence of wild Amur tigers in China. The footage was captured almost 20 miles from the Russian border late last year. In the past, tiger footprints were the only indicators of Amur tigers in China.

In January 2015 President Obama took an important step to protect some key areas in America’s Arctic Ocean, setting aside 9.8 million acres in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas off-limits to consideration for future oil and gas leasing. The Presidents Executive Order includes part of Hanna Shoal which is a region in the Chukchi Sea that is increasingly important habitat for sea-ice dependent species such as Walrus.

Nepal has earned the distinction of achieving two continuous twelve month periods of zero poaching in the last four years. It made them the best possible host for this month’s Asian symposium with that singular focus.

At the top of the food chain, whales play a vital role in the overall health of the environment. WWF documents and protects critical feeding and breeding areas, and migration routes of whales. We also work to help shift shipping lanes to limit noise and other disruptions for whales and other marine species.

Unsustainable development alongside the Great Barrier Reef could cause severe damage to one of Earth’s most important marine environmental systems, according to a new report commissioned by WWF. In order to prevent new stress on this already-vulnerable ecosystem, WWF is calling on the Australian government to ban all dumping of dredge spoil in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Site.